Category Archives: Spacex

Prior to SpaceX using their net-equipped boats in catching falling rocket payload fairings, this hardware was only designed to be used once and then discarded, usually in the ocean after its flight.

But two years ago, SpaceX made history as they used former offshore supply vessels equipped with a large bright-yellow net that spans nearly 40,000 square feet (3,700 square meters) to catch the falling rocket nose cone.

However, the private space company retired its net-equipped boats in April after realizing that catching falling payload fairings are trickier than expected. The company said they are looking for another avenue to catch this hardware now that the boats are retired.

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)Falcon Heavy Demo Mission (SpaceX)

In 2019, The Vergereported that SpaceX caught part of the Falcon Heavy rocket's nose cone when it fell back to Earth, which is the first time to ever happen in the history of spaceflight. The rocket nose cone broke away from the Falcon Heavy rocket and parachuted back to the surface, where it landed on the giant net-equipped boat of SpaceX.

The payload fairing is the bulbous structure of the rocket, which costs $6 million to make that encases the payload during launch and protects it during the initial climb before breaking apart into halves when the rocket is already in space.

Since the company is pushing for reusing rockets, Elon Musk thought of recovering the fairing halves from reusing them. SpaceX has been trying the technique before 2019 and made modifications for better performance, such as making the net bigger to easily catch the fairings.

SpaceX's net-equipped boat was named Mr. Steven and later on, changed its name to GO Ms. Tree. Shortly after, the company introduced another net-equipped boat called Ms. Chief that is identical to Ms. Tree, adorned with four robotic arms and a giant net. The duo worked together to catch payload fairings.

Sadly, the company decided to retire them to look for another avenue of recovering used rocket nose cones. Catching them has proven to be trickier than the company expected, which is why they will no longer be used in future missions.

ALSO READ: SpaceX Nailed Rocket Landing After Sending Massive Radio Satellite to Sirius XM

Space.comreported that a number of uncontrollable factors have led to the retirement of Ms. Tree ad Ms. Chief, such as sea states, winds, and other weather conditions. Although SpaceX has already made several modifications to its fairing pieces to allow them to stand up to saltwater's corrosive nature, the boats' arms were easily damaged by rough seas.

SpaceX announced that following the retirement of their net-equipped boats, they would be looking for another avenue for recovery efforts, like the recovery vessels they use for their Dragon spacecraft splashdown.

The two main ships for Dragon spacecraft splashdown recovery are GO Searcher and GO Navigator and GO Quest that helped in the company's fairing recovery efforts. The company has also contacted boats named Shelia Bordelon and HOS Briarwood to help with recovery efforts when its boats are occupied.

RELATED ARTICLE: SpaceX Fires Up Super Heavy Ahead of Starship's Planned Orbital Launch [WATCH]

Check out more news and information on SpaceXin Science Times.

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SpaceX Will No Longer Use its Net-Equipped Boats that Catches Falling Rocket Nose Cones, What Are Now Their Plans? - Science Times

The first all-civilian orbital flight crew, Inspiration4, flew in zero gravity for the first time this weekend as part of preparations to launch in September.

Inspiration4 is a privately chartered space flight funded by billionaire Jared Isaacman to support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Isaacman will fly on a SpaceX capsule with St. Jude physician's assistant and childhood bone cancer survivor Hayley Arcenaux, data engineer Chris Sembroski and geoscientist, science communicator and artist Sian Proctor. The crew experienced weightlessness for the first time aboard a modified Boeing 727 aircraft flown by the Zero Gravity Corporation (Zero-G).

A photo of the Inspiration4 crew floating in zero gravity was shared on the mission's Twitter page. The crew was all smiles as the plane flew in alternating upward and downward arcs, also known as the parabolic maneuver, to create a microgravity environment in the aircraft cabin and allow passengers to experience brief periods of weightlessness.

Related: Fun in zero-g: Weightless photos from Earth and space

Inspiration4 is the first all-civilian mission to space. The four private astronauts will launch to space aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule Resilience for a three-day mission designed to raise money and support for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

The zero-gravity flight was the crew's latest training exercise ahead of their upcoming September launch. Since the crew is made up of "non-professional" astronauts, or people flying to space who are not affiliated with NASA or any other space agency, they have undergone rigorous training to prepare for the Inspiration4 mission. This includes centrifuge training at The National Aerospace Training and Research (NASTAR) Center in Pennsylvania, where the citizen astronauts were spun in circles to simulate the G-forces (gravitational forces) they'll experience during their actual trip to space.

The crew also endured altitude chamber training at Duke Health in Durham, North Carolina, and hiked up the side of Mount Rainier in Washington together to practice working through difficult circumstances as a team. The four private astronauts hiked to a base camp thousands of feet above sea level, mirroring the tradition of professional astronaut crews ahead of missions to space.

Most recently, the crew has been learning how to fly a Crew Dragon spacecraft at SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California. While the Crew Dragon capsule flies autonomously, Isaacman, who will be the commander of the flight, and Proctor, who will serve as pilot for the mission, have been training in SpaceX spacesuits and running through simulations to familiarize themselves with various aspects of the spacecraft.

Inspiration4 is targeted to launch no earlier than Sept. 15 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission is expected to orbit Earth at an altitude higher than the International Space Station (ISS) or farther than any human has been since astronauts last serviced the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009 for three days, according to a press release. While in orbit, the crew will conduct science experiments and research from within the Crew Dragon spaceship.

Follow Samantha Mathewson @Sam_Ashley13. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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The private Inspiration4 crew launching with SpaceX experience zero gravity for 1st time - Space.com

A retired teacher spent breaks from his cancer treatment combing social media for pictures of SpaceX rocket launches, yearning to join his fellow photographers in Boca Chica, Texas, to document the historic events.

"I would read up on it, and I would see it and think, Man, I wish I was out there,'" Daniel Sanchez told Fox News. "Id think, 'I'm going get through this, and I'll have my opportunity to eventually get out there.'"

"I was just waiting for the day to come that I would be able to get out there and shoot some photos myself," Sanchez continued, noting that he would watch the SpaceX launches on YouTube.

Sanchez was diagnosed with appendix cancer in September 2018. He said doctors called it a "one in a million" diagnosis.

Sanchez said he was told he had "too many tumors" all over his abdominal cavity and that he wasn't a good candidate for surgery. He said he went through six rounds of chemotherapy.

"To have SpaceX come in and establish a location here, it was like a dream come true for me," Sanchez said.

Elon Musk's gateway to Mars, tucked away 20 miles east of Brownsville, Texas, on the shores of Boca Chica Beach, has become a destination. The towering rockets and constant construction at "Starbase" attract sightseers from across the country.

ELON MUSK'S OPEN CALL: MOVE TO TEXAS AND WORK FOR ME

"This is almost the end of the world. You have to drive so far to get here you cant go anyplace beyond this," said Ed Fudman, a Tesla owner cruising around Boca Chica on vacation. "You are right at the edge. Its just amazing that they found this place."

Paul Brannon drove his wife and kids down from Greenville, South Carolina, to see it for himself.

"Its crazy, weve been following it on the internet watching the launches and the crashes," Brannon said.

The SpaceX facility is home to production of "Starship," a prototype rocket designed to one day carry crew and cargo on trips to the moon and Mars. To date, several high-altitude test flights have been conducted with varying levels of success. The May 5 test of Starship SN15 was the first successful launch and nominal landing on the pad.

The launch activity has turned some local photographers into social media celebrities.

"I love photography. I love space travel, anything with astronomy," Sanchez told Fox News. "You combine those two, and it's the perfect thing for me to do."

"This is a really nice distraction for me. Kind of gets my mind off of my cancer situation," Sanchez continued.

Sanchez said he was reluctant to start posting his photos on social media. But when he heard Musk was on Twitter, he joined several other local photographers who have gained a steady following online.

"It's relaxing. I'm fascinated, I take my photos, and I rush home, load them on my computer to go see what I have," Sanchez said. "And it's very rewarding to see these images and to think that it really is history in the making."

"And I'm documenting some of those and I told my boys, my sons, 'You know what, hold on to these photos after I'm gone because they're going to be valuable there,'" Sanchez continued. "We're documenting history as it happens. And I love it."

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SpaceX fascination becomes cancer therapy for retired Texas teacher - Fox News

At this point, SpaceX could claim to be both a rocket company and also a maritime shipping company. The company owns a fleet of drone ships for the purposes of providing their rockets with a safe place to retrograde land in the ocean without having to splash down. In the past, they actually had additional ships for fairing catching, Dragon Capsule recovery, and other support efforts. But now, the company welcomed its newest drone landing ship with an announcement by Elon Musk on Twitter. Welcome to the SpaceX: A Shortfall of Gravitas.

Technically known as an Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (ASDS), the A Shortfall of Gravitas will join two other active ASDSes (Just Read the Instructions (II) and Of Course I Still Love You) as well as a retired platform that was also named Just Read the Instructions.

The original Just Read the Instructions launched in 2014 and unfortunately only had two failed landing attempts before it was retired from service. Its successor, as well as Of Course I Still Love You picked up the slack on the east coast (Port Canaveral) and west coast (Port of Long Beach) respectively. A Shortfall of Gravitas will be joining Just Read the Instructions to support the companys operations on the east coast.

Originally announced in 2018, A Shortfall of Gravitas was supposed to launch in mid-2019. However, it was delayed a bit before finally being completed this month. It is actually an upgrade from its siblings in that it wont require a tug to reach the rockets landing area.

It will have a lot more to live up to though after some original hiccups due to technical difficulties both other drone ships have racked up an impressive number of successful landings, with 39 successes and 6 failures for Of Course I Still Love You and 17 successes and only 1 failure for the Just Read the Instructions (II). In fact, the last 14 attempts at remote landing on an ASDS were successful, including three in June 2021.

A Shortfall of Gravitas has yet to build up such a track record, but the underlying engineering should be the same. And despite the ships differing and somewhat whimsical names they all have another underlying connection as well. They are all named after sentient starships in Iain M. Banks Culture series of sci-fi novels. The ship A Shortfall of Gravitas is named after is actually called Experiencing a Significant Gravitas Shortfall, and comes from the book Look to Windward. Of Course I Still Love You and Just Read the Instructions on the other hand come from a book called The Player of Games.

Given Mr. Musks well known aversion to sentient AI, the ASDSes wont likely take on their namesakes personalities any time soon, as in the novels themselves the ships are depicted as being very interesting. But they dont need to have the same level of sentience to perform their current job well. Lets hope that A Shortfall of Gravitas will live up to its predecessors successful records.

Learn More:UT BulgariaSat-1 Blazes to Orbit on Used SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket as Breakthrough Booster Lands 2nd Time on Oceanic PlatformUT SpaceX Ramps Up; Reused SpaceX BulgariaSat-1 Booster Arrives in Port as Next Falcon 9 Test Fires for July 2 Intelsat Launch Gallery

Lead Image:A Shortfall of Gravitas is officially launched as SpaceXs newest Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship.Credit SpaceX

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Heres SpaceXs new Drone Ship: A Shor... - Universe Today

No bridge, no lookout, no windows: the flat-sided deckhouse of SpaceX's new self-driving deck barge (Elon Musk)

PublishedJul 13, 2021 3:03 PM by The Maritime Executive

Elon Musk's commercial space launch company, SpaceX, may have deployed the largest fully unmanned commercial vessel in operation today.

The 10,000 dwt, 300-foot deck barge Marmac 302wasrecently converted at Bollinger's Port Fourchon yard and renamed A Shortfall of Gravitas. She been outfitted with a wider deck and a set of four thruster pods, enabling her to hold station andcatch SpaceX's booster rockets on their return to earth.

SpaceX owns two similar vessels built from the hulls of Marmac 302's sister barges, the Marmac 303 and 304, and both are DP-capable without crew on board. However, SpaceX says that A Shortfall of Gravitas (dubbed ASOG by SpaceX fans) can drive itself to and from port, without crew and without a tow.

A video released by Elon Musk on Twitter appears to show the vessel self-navigating at a reasonable speed, comparable to or faster than what might be expected under tow. No bridge, windows, lookouts or other signs of an onboard navigational watchare in evidence.

In a followup tweet, Musk confirmed that ASOG is fully automated and requires no tugboat for transits. (It is, however, getting a tow from the Gulf of Mexico to its homeport in Port Canaveral.)

The largest existing autonomous cargo vessel, the Yara Birkeland, is still operating in a fully-crewed test phase. She is somewhat smaller than ASOG at 3,000 dwt and 260 feet in length.

SpaceX conducted its first successful rocket landing at sea in 2016, setting a new technological milestone that has allowed the company to greatly reduce its operating cost per launch. SpaceX's Falcon 9 boosters are designed for refurbishment and reuse, a departure from the disposable-booster business model used by its competitors.Musk has compared the traditionalapproach to "disposable airplanes" andclaims that SpaceX saves money after the third flight on each booster.

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SpaceX May Have the Largest Unmanned Merchant Vessel in Operation - The Maritime Executive

Over two years ago, an MIT research group ran a simulation of the low-Earth orbit broadband constellations of OneWeb, SpaceX, and Telesat, and last January they repeated the simulation updating with revised constellation characteristics and adding Amazon's Project Kuiper.

They ran the new simulation twice, once using the planned initial deployments of each constellation and a second time using the configuration shown below, which shows final deployments assuming that change requests pending in January would be approved. (SpaceX's have been approved). I will discuss the second simulation here, and you can consult the paper for the results of the initial deployment simulation.

The following figure shows the total system throughput for each constellation as a function of the number of ground stations and whether or not the satellites have optical inter-satellite links (OISLs), enabling them to route traffic through the in-orbit grid. (The lines show averages, and the shaded regions show interquartile values).

Note that Telesat is committed to having OISLs in all their satellites, and SpaceX will have them in their polar-orbit version 1.5 satellites that are launching this year and in all version 2 satellites starting next year. OneWeb initially planned to include OISLs but decided not to for now and Amazon has not committed to them but has formed an OISL hardware team.

The following figure shows the number of satellites in line of sight (LoS) at full deployment and population as a function of latitude. All Amazon satellites are in inclined orbits, so while major population centers are served, polar regions are not, and the altitudes of the OneWeb and Telesat constellations increase the numbers of satellites in LoS.

If interested, you should read this and the earlier paper (links in the opening paragraph) for details on the methodology, assumptions, and results, but I will conclude with a couple of caveats.

This simulation ignores the 7,518 very low-Earth orbit satellites that have been approved for SpaceX, and the designs of all of the constellations are in flux. SpaceX will soon be launching version 1.5 satellites, followed by version 2 next year. Similarly, OneWeb will be launching improved satellites by the time the constellation is complete, and Telesat and Amazon are still in the design phase.

The simulation assumes that demand is proportional to population (based on a 0.1-degree resolution grid), so mobile utilization by ships, planes, and vehicles is not considered. It also assumes each individual consumes an average of 300 Kbps and the total addressable market is 10% of the global population. As they admit, the 10% is optimistic. (Elon Musk expects 3-5%). Since SpaceX will be charging the same price in every nation, their per-capita subscription rates will vary with national income, and the companies' target markets vary. For example, Telesat will not market to consumers.

While the specifics will change, and this and other simulations will have to be rerun over time, this simulation considers key variables, and general conclusions can be drawn. For example, in this simulation, maximum throughput is from 13-42% higher when 20 Gbps OISLs are assumed. Currently, only SpaceX and Telesat are committed to OISLs. Still, since OISL technology is improving and they also improve latency, save on ground station cost and enable coverage at sea and other isolated locations, I expect all operators to adopt them eventually. (We may also see OISLs between layers, for example, between Telesat's LEO and GEO constellations).

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A Simulation of the SpaceX, Amazon, Telesat and OneWeb Broadband Satellite Constellations - CircleID

The news: Amazon has silently acquired a Facebook team working on satellite internet connectivity, according to The Information. The team, which consists of over a dozen physicists, optical, prototyping, mechanical, and software engineers, moved over to Amazon in April and has since been helping the company develop its Project Kuiper constellation of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. Amazon apparently wanted to keep the news quietas part of the deal, Amazon reportedly paid to have Facebook seal the agreement.

More on this: Facebook had reportedly spent around six years developing its own in-house satellite internet project called Athena. At one point, Facebook had plans to spend as much as $1 billion on an effort to launch and provide satellite internet connectivity to underserved areas of the world, though that project was scuttled due to a perceived lack of a near-term path to profitability.

How we got here: Last summer Amazon received FCC approval to operate a network of 3,236 LEO satellites, but it has yet to launch a single one.

The takeaway: The Facebook team acquisition will inject Amazon with the expertise and resources needed to quickly play catch up with its competitors.

Though the satellite internet race is still youngcompanies are expected to launch upwards of 46,000 satellites into space over the next decadeAmazon needs to start building out its constellation before SpaceX gains an insurmountable lead. For context, Starlink has already started offering beta test versions of its internet service (with mixed reviews) and claims it will be able to provide global coverage by the end of the year.

The opportunity: According to our forecasts, global internet users are expected to increase from 4.25 billion in 2021 to 4.61 billion in 2025. Many of those new users will be located in developing, often rural areasthe prime demographic likely to benefit from satellite internet connectivity.

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Amazon hopes its acquisition of Facebook's satellite internet team will allow it to compete with SpaceX - eMarketer

Do you ever feel good when someone wont tell you how much something costs something you have to pay for?

No? Me neither.

But, when it comes to the Canadian governments climate change agenda, and in particular the Net Zero by 2050 strategy, that is where we are.

I will continue to dig to find out more. But in the meantime, let me share what an expert on the climate file says about what doing nothing would cost.

Yes, doing nothing.

But dont take my word for it.

President Obama was (and remains) quite outspoken as an alarmist on the issue of climate change, talking often about the impending crisis.

But the former Democratic Presidents senior Department of Energy official, Stephen Koonin, has just come out with a most sensible and distinctly non-alarmist perspective. His recently published book, Unsettled, suggests the alarmist climate change narrative is unfounded.

Stephen Koonin served as Undersecretary of Energy in former U.S. President Barack Obamas administration. A PhD Physicist, he is a smart guy.

Referencing materials from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) an organization that is widely viewed by governments and media as the single most important source for information on climate change Koonin demonstrates that the science of climate change is anything but settled, and that we are not in, nor should we anticipate, a crisis.

In fact, despite decades of apocalyptic warnings there is in fact remarkably little knowledge of what might happen. Over the last 5 decades of apocalyptic warning, life on earth has dramatically improved as our management of countless environmental challenges has improved.

What the evidence really shows is that as the global economy improves, our ability to deal with whatever mother nature throws at us improves. On that point, Koonin draws attention to what the IPCC experts say about the possible economic impacts of possible climate change-induced temperature changes.

Koonin notes that, according to the IPCC, a temperature increase of 3 degrees centigrade by 2100 which some scientists say might happen might create some negative environmental effects, which in turn would cause an estimated 3% hit to the economy in 2100.

But even as it makes these claims, the IPCC further predicts that the economy, in 2100, will be several times the size of the economy today (unless, of course, we interfere with it as the Net Zero by 2050 crowd wants us to do). In other words, a strategy of doing nothing may or may not mean a temperature increase, the effects of which if bad, are expected to represent a small economic hit to the economy, but that economy will be much, much larger.

In Koonins words, thistranslates to a decrease in the annual growth rate by an average of 3 percent divided by 80, or about 0.04 percent per year. The IPCC scenariosassume an average global annual growth rate of about 2 percent through 2100; the climate impact would then be a 0.04 percent decrease in that 2 percent growth rate, for a resulting growth rate of 1.96 percent. In other words, the U.N. report says that the economic impact of human-induced climate change is negligible, at most a bump in the road.

So this doesnt sound like a crisis to me. It sounds like a very modest reduction in extraordinary economic growth. So from extraordinary economic growth to slightly less extraordinary economic growth.

Why do I draw attention to this?

Because Canada is pursuing a Net Zero by 2050 target with a whole bunch of policies that will kill economic growth.

The IPCC predicts significant global economic growth without all the things Trudeau and other Net Zero by 2050 advocates are pursuing massive carbon taxes, additional carbon taxes called clean fuel standards (CFS), building code changes that will make a new home unaffordable, huge subsidies for pet projects, etc. In other words, the IPCC predicts growth without crazy and wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars that will hurt citizens.

So why are we allowing Trudeau and co to pursue these things?

We dont know the full costs of Net Zero by 2050, but every signal we have is that it is absurdly expensive. AND (thank you Stephen Koonin for making this explicitly clear) the International Panel on Climate Change says ignoring the Net Zero by 2050 target and doing nothing will mean a much bigger economy.

Prime Minister Trudeau and the activists wont tell you that.

Nor will they acknowledge what the IPCC actually says.

Lets all applaud Stephen Koonin for trying to do so.

Green activists are driving a radical agenda screaming at us that the science is settled. As courageous scientists like Stephen Koonin note, science is never settled and to say it is settled is irresponsible. The activists say we have to radically change our economy, but dont tell us how much that will cost but the IPCC tells us doing absolutely nothing would result in only slightly less economic growth than we would otherwise have.

Governments are spending massive sums of your money on Net Zero by 2050.

Corporate interests commit to this radical agenda and hide behind rhetoric of doing the right thing, while they also seek out government subsidies (which taxpayers will pay for) to meet their absurd Net Zero by 2050 commitments.

All of us, as consumers, will foot the bill.

And none of it needs to happen.

Click here for more articles from Dan McTeague of Canadians for Affordable energy

An 18 year veteran of the House of Commons, Dan is widely known in both official languages for his tireless work on energy pricing and saving Canadians money through accurate price forecasts. His Parliamentary initiatives, aimed at helping Canadians cope with affordable energy costs, led to providing Canadians heating fuel rebates on at least two occasions.

Widely sought for his extensive work and knowledge in energy pricing, Dan continues to provide valuable insights to North American media and policy makers. He brings three decades of experience and proven efforts on behalf of consumers in both the private and public spheres. Dan is committed to improving energy affordability for Canadians and promoting the benefits we all share in having a strong and robust energy sector.

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From electric scooters to Uber to SpaceX Innovators sometimes have to ignore regulators - Todayville.com

SpaceX is hoping to attempt to fly its in-development spacecraft Starship to orbit for the first time in July, according to company president Gwynne Shotwell. Shotwell shared the timeline at the International Space Development conference during a virtual speaking engagement.

Starship has been in development for the past several years, and it has been making shorter test flights, but remaining within Earths atmosphere, since last year. Its most recent flight also included its first fully successful landing, which is a key ingredient in the development of the Starship launch system, which is designed to be SpaceXs first that is fully reusable.

July (aka next month) is an ambitious timeline for making the first orbital flight attempt of Starship, but in May SpaceX filed its planned course for the flight, which would lift off from the companys Starship development site in south Texas near Brownsville (known as Starbase) and then eventually return to Earth with a splash down in the Pacific Ocean somewhere off the cost of Hawaii.

This first flight wont end with a controlled landing, and the focus will be on reaching orbit and testing the spacecraft component through that part of the flight. Later tests will include a controlled landing of the Starship spacecraft, with the goal of eventually making the entire system, including the Super Heavy booster that will help propel it to orbit, fully reusable.

While Shotwell seemed to indicate high confidence that SpaceX is pretty much technically ready to begin orbital test flights of Starship, the company still needs to secure a license from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in order to perform orbital launches, since its existing license only covers suborbital flights. The FAA is currently in process on reviewing the requirements for that license, including an environmental impact review of what it would mean for the surrounding area.

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SpaceX aiming for first orbital test launch of Starship in July - TechCrunch

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Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for Monday, June 28. How much time did you spend on your phone this weekend? Too much? Not a lot? According to recent data on consumer app spending, you probably spent a pretty fair amount. Consumer spending on apps hit a new record in the first half of the year, though the pace of growth is slowing.

Before we begin, Extra Crunch is on sale this week. Check it out here and support The Good Ship TechCrunch. Alex

To kick off today, were talking about Pittsburgh, a fascinating startup market that TechCrunch is visiting in short order:

Moving to our regular fare, heres more from todays digest of startup happenings:

Many consumers are open to a slick sales pitch, but software developers generally know better.

Successful dev-focused marketing efforts steer these users toward free tools, but unless you know exactly what data to look for and how to measure it, your efforts will have limited impact.

Software companies hoping to connect with developers should treat end users like the go-to-market side of the team, advises Sam Richard, senior director of growth at OpenView, which has invested in companies like Datadog, Expensify and Calendly.

For example: Instead of simply pulling analytics from your production database, what if your GTM team polled stakeholders who touch revenue about the data points they use to make decisions? If you assigned a product manager to address their needs, draft a roadmap and develop an MVP, how much could you learn?

Dont overthink it, says Richard. Selling to developers isnt impossible its just difficult.

(Extra Crunch is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)

TechCrunch is building a shortlist of the top growth marketers in tech. Wed love to hear who youve worked with, so fill out the survey here! Heres one of the many great recommendations weve received:

Name of marketer: Dipti Parmar

Name of recommender: Brody Dorland, co-founder, DivvyHQ

Recommendation: She gave me an easy-to-implement plan to start with clear outcomes and timeline. She delivered it within one month and I was able to see the results in a couple of months. This encouraged me to hand over bigger parts of our content strategy and publishing to her.

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Daily Crunch: SpaceX announces tentative plans to launch first orbital flight next month - TechCrunch